Workshops were held at the University of Washington on December 8, 1997 for all four consortia and on January 23, 1998 specifically for the cell polarity consortium. In the first workshop, 26 scientists from 18 laboratories visited the Center to become familiar, as an entire group, with its technologies and procedures. The consortia members also met individually to establish among themselves the rules by which they will operate. Collectively, we also discussed data sharing, publications, intellectual property rights and other issues of collaboration.